More than a year after the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol, Donald Trump and other Republicans are still pushing the Big Lie that caused it. This is the baseless claim that the last presidential election was “stolen” through a vast conspiracy. No evidence has surfaced to support the allegation. Yet, millions continue to buy into it. The results are frightening — and dangerous. The steady drumbeat of falsehoods has eroded faith in elections, gutted support for democratic institutions, increased political polarization, and spawned a growing movement to take up arms against the government.
Many now question whether spreading the Big Lie should be allowed at all. One judge recently held that such deceit could lead to civil liability. But the issue remains contentious. Should leaders be allowed to delegitimize an election they lost? On one hand, it amounts to political speech, which is strongly protected by the First Amendment. On the other hand, it is not like, say, immigration policy or universal health care, which are complex and nuanced issues. Whether an election was stolen is a question of fact. Either it happened or it didn’t. And inventing a claim that it did happen, with no credible evidence to support the claim, is not legitimate discourse. It is an attempt to profit off of misleading others in a harmful way. We have a name for this. It’s called fraud.
Fraud has four elements: a false statement, intent to deceive, reliance by the victim, and resulting damage....
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